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How the Styrian GP exposed Red Bull's gap to Mercedes

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Formula 1 / Styrian GP Analysis

How the Styrian GP exposed Red Bull's gap to Mercedes

By:

Alex Kalinauckas

Jul 13, 2020, 9:23 AM

Mercedes inflicted a comprehensive defeat to Red Bull on home turf in Sunday's Styrian Grand Prix, as it scored a second consecutive win with Lewis Hamilton. Now the real work starts at Milton Keynes to ensure it doesn't become a theme of 2020

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Two races into the 2020 season and Mercedes has levelled the score at the Red Bull Ring. Max Verstappen had given the home team the glory in the last two 'normal' seasons but, in this year without precedent, Mercedes has struck back mightily - with the score since 2018 now 2-2. Since 2014, when the Austrian track rejoined the Formula 1 calendar after a decade's absence it is actually 6-2. The more you look, the worse it gets for Red Bull and that was the main takeaway from the first Styrian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton was triumphant for the first time in 2020, hitting back after his season opener had gone awry. With Verstappen starting alongside him - and any hope of strategic tyre variation between F1's two leading squads removed by the thrilling wet-weather qualifying session - this was another chance to see exactly how they measure up.

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Alex Kalinauckas

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Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.